SHADOWS FALL: Threads Of Life (Atlantic)
By Fizz
Rating: 6.5
This is going to be a fairly short review, just so you know.
In the first half of this decade, Boston’s Shadows Fall released several great neo-thrash metal albums, making them one of the leaders in the so-called “New Wave Of American Heavy Metal”. Their 2002 masterpiece The Art Of Balance was groundbreaking at the time, and I felt, for the first time in a while, like I was witnessing something really new and cool, and I became a fan after one spin of that album.
Now it’s five years later, and after a couple more strong releases on Century Media, Shadows Fall has made the jump to a major label. The alarm bells began ringing the minute that announcement was made: would SF sell out like so many bands before them? And now, we have our answer, and fortunately for us, it’s a qualified no. In fact, Shadows Fall don’t seem to have changed very much at all. And in a cruel twist of fate, that’s the problem.
All the ingredients are here: the crushing thrash-metal riffs, blazing solos, buffalo-stampede drums, and mixed shouted and sung vocals. All the things that made me love Shadows Fall in the first place are still here in abundant supply. The trouble is, we’ve heard all of this before. There really isn’t anything to distinguish these songs from those on last year’s Fallout From The War. That sense of “these guys are in a rut” that I felt but tried to ignore while reviewing that album has only increased with this latest release. The excitement I felt back in 2002, and with 2004’s The War Within is pretty much gone now. This is business as usual Shadows Fall. The aggression may have been dialed down just a bit on a few songs, but it’s not the major corporate-mandated change some people feared. Vocalist Brian Fair does tend to use his singing voice a bit more these days, and his shouting isn’t quite as over-the-top as it once was, but I don’t count that as a drawback. Or I wouldn’t, except that he sings the same non-catchy melodies in practically every song. Starting right off in lead-off track and first single “Redemption,” when he sings the line “We must try to seeeize theeee daaaaaay …” I thought, “Oh shit, here we go again.” Then they go into the chorus, which totally kills the momentum of the song, which had actually been a pretty good song up to that point.
Over the years, I had seen Shadows Fall referred to more than once as “thrash hard-rockers,” whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. Here, it means that the riffs are still as thrashy as ever, but the tempos are just a little slower and … well, hard-rockish, even with the constant double-bass pounding. We have to wait until the fourth track, “Failure Of The Devout,” for the band to really cut loose. And, like it’s typically-SF song title might suggest, it’s a refreshing blast of thrash, with a killer, rolling groove in the middle.
In general, the second half of Threads Of Life slams harder than the first. Beginning with “Final Call,” things pick up noticeably. The songs are faster and the vocals more urgent. You almost don’t notice that “Dread Uprising” steals its intro from “Idle Hands” (from Art Of Balance). The solo on this tune is just blistering (although, really, they all are), and I really like the bridge. “The Great Collapse” is a moody, pretty acoustic instrumental in the vein of “Casting Shade,” and helps provide a bit of a breather before the final two tracks pummel your ears.
There’s only one really obvious sign that the band is now on a major label: a ballad. Ugh! Shadows Fall have always sprinkled some mellower interludes throughout past albums, like “The Art Of Balance,” “Inspiration On Demand,” etc. But “Another Hero Lost” is a full-blown ballad, albeit a somewhat heavy one. I absolutely hated it when I first heard it, but have found it not to be so bad on repeated listens. It still sounds like a weak Testament ballad though, and should’ve been left off the album, but for the fact that it at least offers a new sound.
I read this article recently, I think from Billboard, where the writer was wondering if bands like Shadows Fall, Lamb of God, etc., were ever going to make it big on a major label. Lamb of God and Mastodon had already signed with majors, but mainstream success still eluded them. Shadows Fall seemed to be true metal’s last great hope (for now, anyway). I’ve got to say, I don’t see it happening with Threads Of Life. Shadows Fall have many good qualities, but for the most part, they just do not write catchy songs that are going to appeal to people who aren’t already into this type of music. The new album in particular seems especially lacking in what you’d call “hooks.”
So the good news is that Shadows Fall really haven’t sold out too much, except for one ballad. The bad news is, they aren’t doing anything here that they haven’t done better on past albums. To give it a low rating would be unfair, but I really can’t go any higher here, because Threads Of Life just doesn’t hold my interest very well, even as I still listen to The Art Of Balance and The War Within regularly.
Best Songs: “Failure Of The Devout,” “Final Call”
Worst song: “Another Hero Lost”
